


Better Half

by Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw



Series: February Ficlet Challenge 2018 [16]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-20 05:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13711134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw/pseuds/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw
Summary: After the mission to Mars, Shepard discusses one unsettling fact with Liara.Pairing: Female Shepard/Liara T'SoniPrompt: Daemon AU





	Better Half

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by imaginary_golux
> 
> Longfellow is Ashley's daemon. I think he might be a badger.

“Did you notice?” Jane asks quietly. Ashley and Longfellow are as safe as they can be in the medbay, so there’s nothing to do but wait until they reach the Citadel. 

“Notice what?” Liara’s daemon, now a snake, curls comfortingly around her arm. 

“Those Cerberus troops. No daemons.” Mara growls soothingly, nuzzling into Shepard’s side, and the human scratches the lioness behind her ears.

“Goddess - do you think they were severed?” Arinya won’t settle until Liara begins to enter her Matron stage, and she shifts from snake to rabbit, providing a lump of softness in her lap, projecting warmth through their empathic bond.

“I wouldn’t put anything past the Illusive Man.” Shepard’s voice is bitter. 

“Monstrous,” Liara says, and there is little more that words can convey. “I do not know what I would do without my better half.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” Shepard teases weakly. The joke falls flat, pierced by Liara’s doleful stare. “Anyway, that must be a recent change. Miranda, Jacob, and the rest of the SR-2 crew were all perfectly fine.”

“If he had done anything of the kind, I would never have given your body to Cerberus,” Liara vows. She takes Shepard’s hand and Arinya turns into a sparrow to perch on Mara’s head. They sit in silence for a moment before Liara’s analytical bent surfaces. “Why would he sever his own people in such numbers? The loss of combat effectiveness from the decrease in independence, intelligence, and daemon support would surely outweigh the increase in obedience.”

“Unless you were doing something so reprehensible that you couldn’t get anyone to follow you in numbers. And trust me, humans have been willing to go along with a lot through the years.” Shepard rolls her shoulders back. “So whatever he’s planning…”

“...must be truly gruesome indeed,” Liara concludes. “Worse than slavery, worse than genocide, worse than the genophage.”

“If the Reapers weren’t the greater threat, I’d be hunting him down to put his head on a pike,” Shepard thunders. Mara roars her approval so loudly that Arinya startles, flitting in circles before shifting into a great grizzly bear. She and Mara begin tussling playfully as their people watch them. 

“I’m glad you haven’t changed at all, Jane,” Liara quips tartly. 

“I love you too, dear.”

**Author's Note:**

> The coat of arms of the duchy of Normandy is two golden lions on a field of red.


End file.
